Grade 7 Social Studies Alabama standards Standards

Civics

Geography

CIVICS

Describe the world in spatial terms using maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies.

Explaining the use of map essentials, including type, projections, scale, legend, distance, direction, grid, and symbols

Identifying geospatial technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective

Utilizing maps to explain relationships and environments among people and places, including trade patterns, governmental alliances, and immigration patterns

Applying mental maps to answer geographic questions, including how experiences and cultures influence perceptions and decisions

Categorizing the geographic organization of people, places, and environments using spatial models

Explain how human systems develop in response to physical environmental conditions.

Identifying types, locations, and characteristics of natural hazards, including earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and mudslides

Differentiating ways people prepare for and respond to natural hazards, including building storm shelters, conducting fire and tornado drills, and establishing building codes for construction

Explain the cultural concept of natural resources and changes in spatial distribution, quantity, and quality through time and by location.

Evaluating various cultural viewpoints regarding the use or value of natural resources

Identifying issues regarding depletion of nonrenewable resources and the sustainability of renewable resources

Explain ways geographic features and environmental issues have influenced historical events.

Determine how regions are used to describe the organization of Earth's surface.

Identifying physical and human features used as criteria for mapping formal, functional, and perceptual regions

Interpreting processes and reasons for regional change, including land use, urban growth, population, natural disasters, and trade

Analyzing interactions among regions to show transnational relationships, including the flow of commodities and Internet connectivity

Comparing how culture and experience influence individual perceptions of places and regions

Explaining globalization and its impact on people in all regions of the world

Compare geographic patterns in the environment that result from processes within the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere of Earth's physical systems.

Comparing Earth-Sun relationships regarding seasons, fall hurricanes, monsoon rainfalls, and tornadoes

Explaining processes that shape the physical environment, including long-range effects of extreme weather phenomena

Describing characteristics and physical processes that influence the spatial distribution of ecosystems and biomes on Earth's surface

Comparing how ecosystems vary from place to place and over time

Comparing geographic issues in different regions that result from human and natural processes

Evaluate spatial patterns and the demographic structure of population on Earth's surface in terms of density, dispersion, growth and mortality rates, natural increase, and doubling time.

Predicting reasons and consequences of migration, including push and pull factors

Explain how cultural features, traits, and diffusion help define regions, including religious structures, agricultural patterns, ethnic enclaves, ethnic restaurants, and the spread of Islam.

Illustrate how primary, secondary, and tertiary economic activities have specific functions and spatial patterns.

Comparing one location to another for production of goods and services

Analyzing the impact of economic interdependence and globalization on places and their populations

Explaining why countries enter into global trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), the European Union (EU), the Mercado Común del Sur (MERCOSUR), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Classify spatial patterns of settlement in different regions of the world, including types and sizes of settlement patterns.

Explaining human activities that resulted in the development of settlements at particular locations due to trade, political importance, or natural resources

Describing settlement patterns in association with the location of resources

Describing ways in which urban areas interact and influence surrounding regions

Determine political, military, cultural, and economic forces that contribute to cooperation and conflict among people.

Identifying political boundaries based on physical and human systems

Identifying effects of cooperation among countries in controlling territories

Describing the eruption of territorial conflicts over borders, resources, land use, and ethnic and nationalistic identity

Explain how human actions modify the physical environment within and between places, including how human-induced changes affect the environment.

Compare influences of ancient Greece, the Roman Republic, the Judeo-Christian tradition, the Magna Carta, federalism, the Mayflower Compact, the English Bill of Rights, the House of Burgesses, and the Petition of Rights on the government of the United States.

Describe individual and civic responsibilities of citizens of the United States.

Differentiating rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities between citizens and noncitizens

Explaining how United States' citizenship is acquired by immigrants

Explaining character traits that are beneficial to individuals and society

Compare changes in social and economic conditions in the United States during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Determining benefits of Alabama's role in world trade

Tracing the political and social impact of the modern Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to the present, including Alabama's role

Describe how the United States can be improved by individual and group participation in civic and community activities.

Identifying options for civic and community action

Determining ways to participate in the political process

Identify contemporary American issues since 2001, including the establishment of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the enactment of the Patriot Act of 2001, and the impact of media analysis.

Explain essential characteristics of the political system of the United States, including the organization and function of political parties and the process of selecting political leaders.

Describing the influence of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Paine, Niccolò Machiavelli, Charles de Montesquieu, and François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire) on the political system of the United States

Compare the government of the United States with other governmental systems, including monarchy, limited monarchy, oligarchy, dictatorship, theocracy, and pure democracy.

Describe structures of state and local governments in the United States, including major Alabama offices and officeholders.

Describing how local and state governments are funded

Compare duties and functions of members of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of Alabama's local and state governments and of the national government.

Locating political and geographic districts of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of Alabama's local and state governments and of the national government

Describing the organization and jurisdiction of courts at the local, state, and national levels within the judicial system of the United States

Explaining concepts of separation of powers and checks and balances among the three branches of state and national governments

Explain the importance of juvenile, adult, civil, and criminal laws within the judicial system of the United States.

Explaining rights of citizens as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights under the Constitution of the United States

Explaining what is meant by the term rule of law

Justifying consequences of committing a civil or criminal offense

Contrasting juvenile and adult laws at local, state, and federal levels

Determine how people organize economic systems to address basic economic questions regarding which goods and services will be produced, how they will be distributed, and who will consume them.

Using economic concepts to explain historical and current developments and issues in global, national, state, or local contexts

Analyzing agriculture, tourism, and urban growth in Alabama for their impact on economic development

Appraise the relationship between the consumer and the marketplace in the economy of the United States regarding scarcity, opportunity cost, trade-off decision making, and the stock market.

Describing effects of government policies on the free market

Identifying laws protecting rights of consumers and avenues of recourse when those rights are violated

Comparing economic systems, including market, command, and traditional

Apply principles of money management to the preparation of a personal budget that addresses housing, transportation, food, clothing, medical expenses, insurance, checking and savings accounts, loans, investments, credit, and comparison shopping.

Identify and recognize the various countries and cultures that influenced the government of the United States.

Demonstrate that individuals have a responsibility to be good citizens and community members; identify the legal definition of a United States citizen and non-citizen.

Recognize Alabama’s growing role in the world politically and socially including its impact of the modern Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to the present.

Recognize modern social and economic opportunities and define what they are. Examples include legal protections for workers with disabilities and anti-discrimination laws.

Recognize opportunities for participation in community and civic action.

Demonstrate an awareness of current events at the local, state, or national level.

Define political parties; identify that political leaders are elected in the United States and that political parties work to get their candidates elected.

Describe the basic ideals of American democracy, including natural rights, basic freedoms, and democratic representation; identify characteristics of other government systems including, monarchy, dictatorship, and democracy.

Recognize that there are different levels of government, including local and state government.

Define the three branches of government; recognize the function of each branch of government as making laws, enforcing laws, or reviewing laws; identifying concepts of separation of powers and checks and balances.

Identify the basic rights under the Bill of Rights; recognize how government protects individual rights; recognize that citizens have a responsibility to follow laws and that there are consequences for breaking laws.

Define goods and services; identify the basic modern economic system based around currency; identify goods and services and ways consumers get access to them.

Recall that consumers have to make decisions based on resources and scarcity; recognize examples of consumer and marketplace interaction; identifying economic systems, including market, command, and traditional.

Identify the principles and purposes of a budget; identify wants and needs and recognize that each has a cost, including food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, utilities.

Describe the world in spatial terms, using maps and other geographic representations, tools, and geospatial technologies.

Describe cultural and economic characteristics of early Indigenous peoples in North and South America, including civilizations in Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the Mississippi River Valley.

Identify locations and migration patterns of early Indigenous peoples on a map, including the Olmec and Woodland Period civilizations.

Compare and contrast the development of agriculture in the Americas with agricultural practices in other early civilizations.

Describe how religion, architecture, and politics intersected in early Indigenous civilizations, including the Maya civilization.

Trace the development and growth of societies in Southwest Asia, including the Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Persian Empire.

Analyze the development of civilization in South Asia from the settling of the Indus River Valley to the beginning of the Gupta Empire.

Summarize how Hinduism as well as a caste system emerged from different religious beliefs and schools of philosophy.

Describe how geographic conditions in South Asia, including monsoons, and trade with neighboring regions contributed to the growth of civilization in the region.

Trace the development of Buddhism, including the contributions of Emperor Ashoka, and explain how Buddhism influenced society in Classical India.

Explain the emergence and consolidation of China from the Xia Dynasty along the Huang He River Valley through the fall of the Han Dynasty.

Compare and contrast the philosophies of Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism and explain how they influenced dynastic cycles, politics, and society in China.

Trace the reunification of China from the Warring States period and the Qin Dynasty which led to China’s Golden Age under the Han Dynasty.

Describe the significance of Chinese technological advancements, including paper, gunpowder, the compass, and the seismograph.

Analyze how the establishment of the Silk Road fostered economic and cultural development across multiple continents.

Summarize cultural contributions and legacies of Classical Greece, including architecture, arts, intellectual life, literature, politics, and science.

Explain the development of the polis and analyze how geography affected the process, including Athens and Sparta.

Trace the development of Greek city-states' political systems, including democracy, that influenced the governments of modern nations.

Explain the influence of philosophers on Greek society, culture, and politics as well as their influence on modern thought.

Analyze the internal and external conflicts that played a role in Classical Greek society.

Describe the influence of Alexander the Great’s empire, including the establishment of Hellenistic kingdoms, the diffusion of Greek culture, and its role in shaping Rome.

Outline the key geographic, political, economic, and cultural elements of the Roman Republic.

Trace the growth of the Roman Republic, using a variety of thematic and political maps.

Explain the social and cultural outcomes of economic activities within the Mediterranean region, including the establishment of colonies that influenced each other culturally.

Analyze the social, political, and economic effects of the Punic Wars.

Summarize the influence of Roman legal and political systems on later societies.

Describe the internal and external factors that led to the eventual collapse of the Roman Republic.

Trace the development of the Roman Empire, including the actions of Julius Caesar and the reigns of Augustus Caesar and the Five Good Emperors.

Explain Rome’s shift from Republic to Empire, including economic, political, and geographic causes.

Describe the founding and development of Christianity, including the roles of Jesus of Nazareth and Paul of Tarsus, and how its spread was directly and indirectly influenced by the Roman Empire.

Summarize the economic, political, and social factors that led to the split and eventual fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Explain and demonstrate the use of map essentials, including direction, distance, legend, latitude, longitude, map type, projection, scale, and symbols.

Use physical, political, and special-purpose maps to identify the distribution of people, location of places, and classification of physical features.

Utilize maps to explain relationships among people and places, including governmental alliances, immigration patterns, and trade patterns.

Describe how geographic features and political entities are organized and labeled, including continents, countries, and oceans.

Analyze how human interaction with the environment, location, movement, place, and region affect cultural, economic, and social conditions for those living in a geographic area.

Analyze how historians organize human history and events, including the use of calendars.

Describe multiple methods for organizing and labeling periods of time, including differentiating between the BC/AD and BCE/CE notations.

Explain how artifacts and other archaeological findings provide evidence of the nature and movement of prehistoric groups of people.

Differentiate among primary, secondary, and tertiary sources in how they are used to study both history and geography.

Use maps to identify how climate and weather patterns, including the Ice Ages, affect the ways humans adapt within different geographic locations.

Predict causes and consequences of human migration, including push and pull factors.

Explain common patterns that emerged in the shift from hunter-gatherer societies to permanent settlements in different regions of the world, including types and sizes of settlements.

Analyze the influence of physical geography on the locations of the early agrarian societies, including the early river valleys settlements.

Describe the settlement patterns, shift in gender roles, and job specialization associated with the development of agrarian societies.

Describe the agricultural innovations that developed as a result of the Neolithic Revolution, including the domestication of plants and animals.

Explain how technological innovations and the geographic features of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers contributed to the development of civilization in the Fertile Crescent.

Describe how agriculture, domestication of animals, inventions, irrigation, metalsmithing, and mining contributed to the settlement and growth of Mesopotamian civilizations.

Analyze how advancements in agriculture in Sumer led to economic growth, expansion of trade and transportation, and the emergence of independent city-states.

Summarize the cultural and political innovations of Mesopotamia, including The Epic of Gilgamesh and Hammurabi's Code.

Analyze the economic, political, and social structures of ancient Egypt.

Describe the role of the Nile River and Mediterranean Sea in supporting the economic and cultural growth of ancient Egypt.

Identify major technological and artistic achievements of ancient Egypt.

Summarize the social structure and religious beliefs of ancient Egypt.

Describe the achievement of key leaders of ancient Egypt and how these achievements helped grow the kingdom.

Explain the geographic and cultural development of ancient Israel.

Identify the central tenets of Judaism, and compare Judaism to the polytheistic religions of other Mediterranean ancient civilizations.

Describe the establishment of a unified Israel under Kings Saul, David, and Solomon.

Outline the multiple exiles of the Jewish people and their return to Israel, from the establishment of the nation through the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD/CE.

Compare and contrast the economic and cultural structures of early African societies.

Explain how physical geography, including natural resources, contributed to the economic and cultural practices of early African societies.

Describe common tenets of indigenous religion practiced in Africa, including the beliefs of the Ashanti, Dogon, and Igbo religious traditions.

Describe how trade, including silent barter, facilitated exchange of economic practices, language, and culture across Africa from prehistory through the Iron Age.

Ancient Civilizations in the Americas and Africa

Ancient and Classical Civilizations in Asia

Ancient Civilizations in the Greater Mediterranean

Classical Greece and Rome

Five Themes of Geography and Map Skills

Pre-History and the Neolithic Revolution